Phil, the Fiddler Part 16

If the padrone had had a heart, this generous request would have touched it; but he was not troubled in that way.

"He must be whipped, too," he said. "He should not have gone with you."

"He is sick, padrone," persisted Phil. "Excuse him till he is better."

"Not a word more," roared the padrone, irritated at his persistence.

"If he is sick, it is because he has eaten too much," he added, with a sneer. "Pietro, my stick!"

The two boys began to strip mechanically, knowing that there was no appeal. Phil stood bare to the waist. The padrone seized the stick and began to belabor him. Phil's brown face showed by its contortions the pain he suffered, but he was too proud to cry out. When the punishment was finished his back was streaked with red, and looked maimed and bruised.

"Put on your s.h.i.+rt!" commanded the tyrant.

Phil drew it on over his bleeding back and resumed his place among his comrades.

"Now!" said the padrone, beckoning to Giacomo.

The little boy approached s.h.i.+vering, not so much with cold as with the fever that had already begun to prey upon him.

Phil turned pale and sick as he looked at the padrone preparing to inflict punishment. He would gladly have left the room, but he knew that it would not be permitted.

The first blow descended heavily upon the shrinking form of the little victim. It was followed by a shriek of pain and terror.

"What are you howling at?" muttered the padrone, between his teeth. "I will whip you the harder."

Giacomo would have been less able to bear the cruel punishment than Phil if he had been well, but being sick, it was all the more terrible to him. The second blow likewise was followed by a shriek of anguish. Phil looked on with pale face, set teeth, and blazing eyes, as he saw the barbarous punishment of his comrade. He felt that he hated the padrone with a fierce hatred. Had his strength been equal to the attempt, he would have flung himself upon the padrone. As it was, he looked at his comrades, half wis.h.i.+ng that they would combine with him against their joint oppressor. But there was no hope of that. Some congratulated themselves that they were not in Giacomo's place; others looked upon his punishment as a matter of course. There was no dream of interference, save in the mind of Phil.

The punishment continued amid the groans and prayers for mercy of the little sufferer. But at the eighth stroke his pain and terror reached a climax, and nature succ.u.mbed. He sank on the floor, fainting. The padrone thought at first it was a pretense, and was about to repeat the strokes, when a look at the pallid, colorless face of the little sufferer alarmed him. It did not excite his compa.s.sion, but kindled the fear that the boy might be dying, in which case the police might interfere and give him trouble; therefore he desisted, but unwillingly.

"He is sick," said Phil, starting forward.

"He is no more sick than I am," scowled the padrone. "Pietro, some water!"

Pietro brought a gla.s.s of water, which the padrone threw in the face of the fallen boy. The shock brought him partially to. He opened his eyes, and looked around vacantly.

"What is the matter with you?" demanded the padrone, harshly.

"Where am I?" asked Giacomo, bewildered. But, as he asked this question, his eyes met the dark look of his tyrant, and he clasped his hands in terror.

"Do not beat me!" he pleaded. "I feel sick."

"He is only shamming," said Pietro, who was worthy to be the servant and nephew of such a master. But the padrone thought it would not be prudent to continue the punishment.

"Help him put on his clothes, Pietro," he said. "I will let you off this time, little rascal, but take heed that you never again steal a single cent of my money."

Giacomo was allowed to seek his uncomfortable bed. His back was so sore with the beating he had received that he was compelled to lie on his side. During the night the feverish symptoms increased, and before morning he was very sick. The padrone was forced to take some measures for his recovery, not from motives of humanity, but because Giacomo's death would cut off a source of daily revenue, and this, in the eyes of the mercenary padrone, was an important consideration.

Phil went to bed in silence. Though he was suffering from the brutal blows he had received, the thought of the punishment and suffering of Giacomo affected him more deeply than his own. As I have said, the two boys came from the same town in southern Italy. They had known each other almost from infancy, and something of a fraternal feeling had grown up between them. In Phil's case, since he was the stronger, it was accompanied by the feeling that he should be a protector to the younger boy, who, on his side, looked up to Phil as stronger and wiser than himself. Though only a boy of twelve, what had happened led Phil to think seriously of his position and prospects. He did not know for how long his services had been sold to the padrone by his father, but he felt sure that the letter of the contract would be little regarded as long as his services were found profitable.

What hope, then, had he of better treatment in the future? There seemed no prospect except of continued oppression and long days of hards.h.i.+p, unless--and here the suggestion of Mr. Pomeroy occurred to him--unless he ran away. He had known of boys doing this before. Some had been brought back, and, of course, were punished severely for their temerity, but others had escaped, and had never returned. What had become of them Phil did not know, but he rightly concluded that they could not be any worse off than in the service of the padrone. Thinking of all this, Phil began to think it probable that he, too, would some day break his bonds and run away. He did not fix upon any time. He had not got as far as this. But circ.u.mstances, as we shall find in our next chapter, hastened his determination, and this, though he knew it not, was the last night he would sleep in the house of the padrone.

CHAPTER XII

GIACOMO'S PRESENTIMENTS

Phil woke up the next morning feeling lame and sore. His back bore traces of the flogging he had received the night before. As his eyes opened, they rested upon twenty boys lying about him, and also upon the dark, unsightly walls of the shabby room, and the prospect before him served to depress even his hopeful temperament. But he was not permitted to meditate long. Pietro opened the door, and called out in harsh tones: "Get up, all of you, or the padrone will be here with his stick!"

The invitation was heard and obeyed. The boys got up, yawning and rubbing their eyes, having a wholesome dread of their tyrant and his stick, which no tenderness of heart ever made him reluctant to use.

Their toilet did not require long to make. The padrone was quite indifferent whether they were clean or not, and offered them no facilities for was.h.i.+ng.

When they were dressed they were supplied with a frugal breakfast--a piece of bread and cheese each; their instruments were given them, and they were started off for a long day of toil.

Phil looked around for Giacomo, who had slept in a different room, but he was not to be seen.

"Is Giacomo sick this morning, Pietro?" he asked of the padrone's nephew.

"He pretends to be sick, little drone!" said Pietro, unfeelingly. "If I were the padrone, I would let him taste the stick again."

Phil felt that he would like to see the brutal speaker suffering the punishment he wanted inflicted on him; but he knew Pietro's power and malice too well to give utterance to the wish. A longing came to him to see Giacomo before he went out. He might have had a secret presentiment of what was coming.

"Signor Pietro," he said, "may I see Giacomo before I go out?"

This request would have been refused without doubt, but that Pietro felt flattered at being addressed as signor, to which his years did not yet ent.i.tle him. Phil knew this, and therefore used the t.i.tle.

"What do you want to see him for?" he asked, suspiciously.

"I want to ask him how he feels."

"Yes, you can go in. Tell him he must get up to-morrow. The padrone will not let him spend his time in idleness."

So Phil, having already his fiddle under his arm, entered the room where Giacomo lay. The other occupants of the room had risen, and the little boy was lying on a hard pallet in the corner. His eyes lighted up with joy as he saw Phil enter.

"I am glad it is you, Filippo," he said; "I thought it was the padrone, come to make me get up."

"How do you feel this morning, Giacomo?"

"I do not feel well, Filippo. My back is sore, and I am so weak."

His eyes were very bright with the fever that had now control, and his cheeks were hot and flushed. Phil put his hand upon them.

"Your cheeks are very hot, Giacomo," he said. "You are going to be sick."

"I know it, Filippo," said the little boy. "I may be very sick."

"I hope not, Giacomo."

"Lean over, Filippo," said Giacomo. "I want to tell you something."